


A Time Long Past

by Settiai



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Post-Mass Effect 3, Reminiscing, Synthesis Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 00:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5805517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tali remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Time Long Past

Tali stared at her reflection in the mirror, and a stranger stared back at her.

Oh, it wasn't truly a stranger. Tali knew that the face she was seeing was hers. It just didn't feel like it, not with so much of her life spent in a suit. The fact that she wasn't wearing one now, that she would never have to wear one again, still seemed like a dream at times even after almost two years.

A flicker of green ran across her face, lighting up her eyes for a second or two before trailing down her neck and disappearing under her clothing. Tali grimaced, looking away. That was something else she wasn't used to seeing, that she might never be used to seeing if she was honest with herself.

"What are you doing up?"

Tali startled, glancing behind her. She abruptly became aware of a probing presence at the back of her mind that she'd apparently been ignoring, a side effect of... whatever it was that Shepard had done, there at the end. In those last moments, right before she—

"I couldn't sleep," Tali said, a little more harshly than she'd intended. She was trying to cut off her memories before they overwhelmed her, though. Organic and synthetic had never been intended to mesh so thoroughly, and two years wasn't nearly enough time to learn how everything worked now.

Garrus shot her a knowing look. He took a few steps forward until he was standing beside her, but then he stopped. He didn't touch her. He didn't say anything. He just stood there, offering support without forcing anything on her.

That was part of why she loved him.

"Do you know what today is?" she asked him, trying to keep her voice light.

Judging by the wary look he shot her, Tali suspected she might not have succeeded as well as she'd intended. Still, he simply shook his head. "Should I?" he asked. Then his eyes widened a little, as if a thought had just occurred to him. "No, really, should I? Did I forget something? It's not our anniversary, and your birthday was just—"

Tali leaned to the side a little, resting her head against his shoulder. Garrus stopped talking abruptly.

"This was the day I received my first suit," she said, more than a little melancholy seeping into her voice despite her best intentions.

Garrus hesitated for a moment. "I'm guessing that's important?" he asked.

Tali's eyes flickered to the mirror again, the reflection that she barely recognized staring back at her, before she grimaced and turned her gaze toward him instead. Garrus still looked like himself, for the most part. His eyes glowed green from time to time, like all of theirs did, but the worst of the changes to his face were mostly hidden by his visor. Not that he truly needed to wear it anymore, of course. It was a habit, mostly, or maybe a way of clinging to the past at least a little.

There was a buzzing at the back of her brain, the rudimentary connection that the two of them shared letting her feel his concern momentarily before he managed to gain enough control over it to mute it again. She smiled, despite herself, and reached down to clasp his hand within hers.

"Very important," she said quietly. "It is... well, it _was_ what I suppose you would call our coming of age ceremony." She paused for a moment. "There are quarian children out there right now who will never go through it. Who will never know what it means to—"

Tali trailed off, not quite certain what to say. It wasn't a bad thing. Even she could not claim that it was, not when her people had their homeworld back. Not when they lived in peace with the geth. Not when a suit rupture no longer meant a potential death sentence. Not when, for the first time in history, the quarians were considered equals with the other races.

No, it wasn't a bad thing. The galaxy was a better place. And yet, she couldn't help but feel as if she had lost something. As if her _people_ had lost something.

Garrus squeezed her hand. "What's it like?" he asked. "This suit ceremony of yours, I mean?"

Tali allowed herself a small smile, a tiny flicker at the corner of her mouth. She concentrated for a moment, trying to feel for the connection that she knew was there but could barely control, trying her best to send a burst of emotions across to Garrus. She didn't know the words, wasn't even certain there were words, but if she could just—

His grip on her hand tightened, and a sharp intake of breath let her know that her message must have gone through clearly. Tali focused a little harder, trying to send across _love_ and _gratitude_ and _what did I ever do to deserve you?_ and a million other things all at once.

"Tali," Garrus said, his voice a little strangled, and she forced herself to stop. To cut the connection that was between them, or at least cut it as much as she knew how.

"Let's go back to bed," she said, well aware that her hand was still wrapped in his and that her head was still resting against his shoulder. "I'll tell you about it, what it was like growing up in the flotilla."

She turned her head a little, pressing a kiss against the skin of his arm.

Then her gaze moved back toward the mirror again, for just a moment. The face staring back at her was still mostly unfamiliar, dark hair and pale purple skin with flickers of glowing green energy moving across it at random. With Garrus's reflection standing beside hers, though, it was easier to think that it really was her standing there rather than a stranger.

For just a moment, Tali almost thought she saw the reflection of a faceplate, the only face she had shown the galaxy for most of her adult life. Then she blinked and it was gone, bare skin and an unhidden face reflecting back at her.

"Let's go back to bed," Tali repeated quietly.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on Tumblr. (http://settiai.tumblr.com/)


End file.
